The Christmas Uprising (), also known as the Christmas Rebellion (, ), was a failed uprising in Montenegro led by the Greens in early January 1919. The military leader of the uprising was Krsto PopoviÃÂ and its political leader was Jovan Plamenac.
The catalyst for the uprising was a decision of the controversial Great National Assembly of the Serb People in Montenegro, commonly known as the Podgorica Assembly. The assembly decided to directly unify the Kingdom of Montenegro with the Kingdom of Serbia, which would shortly after become the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Following a questionable candidate selection process, the unionist Whites outnumbered the Greens, who were in favour of preserving Montenegrin statehood.
The uprising reached a climax in Cetinje on 7 January 1919, which was the date of Eastern Orthodox Christmas. The unionists with support from the Serbian Army defeated the rebel Greens. In the aftermath of the uprising, the dethroned King Nikola of Montenegro was forced to issue a call for peace, since many homes were destroyed. As a result of the uprising, a number of participants complicit in the uprising were tried and imprisoned. Other participants in the uprising fled to the Kingdom of Italy, meanwhile some retreated to the mountains and continued guerrilla resistance under the banner of the Montenegrin Army in exile, which lasted until 1929. The most notable guerilla militia leader was Savo RaspopoviÃÂ.
Multiple historians acknowledge that a majority of Montenegrins supported the unification with other Southern Slavs on a federal basis after the World War I. However, support for unification did not involve the same degree of support for the Podgorica Assembly, since many of those who supported unification wanted Montenegro to join the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes as an autonomous entity, ultimately in a confederation rather than a centralized Serbian kingdom.
Historian Ivo Banac suggested that the Greens enjoyed support from a larger proportion of the population but were comparably poorly organised, indecisive, and politically divided. While some fought for full independence and the return of Nikola to the country, others supported union with Serbia, objecting only to Montenegro's unequal status in such a union.
The plan of the Greens consisted of six points.
This plan was delivered to Antonio Baldacci on 14 December 1918.
The rebellion first broke out around Podgorica. Some MartiniÃÂi headed by commanders Stevan and BogiàRadoviàtook control of Spuà ¾ Fortress. The Piperi headed by Brigadier General Milutin VuÃÂiniàsevered the road between Danilovgrad and Podgorica at VraniÃÂke Njive. Commander Andrija and Captain Mato RaiÃÂeviàseized Velje Brdo overlooking Podgorica.
Since most BjelopavliÃÂi were supporters of the unification, the rebels who occupied Spuà ¾ Fortress were quickly forced to capitulate with no bullets fired. The leaders were detained and their troops were sent home. The BjelopavliÃÂi, for the most part consisting of the youth, continued toward Podgorica. They were met at VraniÃÂke Njive by VuÃÂiniÃÂ, where fighting would have probably broken out, had the youth of Podgorica, Piperi and KuÃÂi not simultaneously reached his troops from behind. VuÃÂiniàwas surrounded, and ordered his troops to lay down their arms. The leaders were, again, detained and transported to Podgorica, and the troops sent home. The same happened at Velje Brdo.
The defeat at Podgorica would prove to be a strong setback for the rebels, since the troops that were disarmed were supposed to help with the sieges of Nikà ¡iàand Cetinje. Also, the rebels seemed less united and less willing, which had its toll on the confidence of the Greens in other areas.
The town of Nikà ¡iàwas surrounded on but no fighting broke out until the afternoon of 5 January. The siege was led from one side by Major à  ÃÂepan Mijuà ¡koviÃÂ, a veteran of several previous wars. During the morning, the rebels delivered an ultimatum to the town's defenders to send their commanders to the new brewery by the Bistrica river. Shots were fired first from Trebjesa hill, and after from ÃÂaÃÂelica, Glavica and from around the brewery.
The town's youth organized a council where Dr Niko MartinoviÃÂ was elected president, and Marko Kavaja, later screenwriter, secretary. Some veterans also joined, however the troops in the town under the command of Captain StojiÃÂ lost contact with Cetinje and stood down. StojiÃÂ armed the youth with one machine gun. Kavaja went to negotiate with the rebels in Pandurica, in the company of a POW, the brother of Radojica NikÃÂeviÃÂ, one of the rebel leaders. He claims that the rebels were not opposed to the unification, but were fighting for their "honorable vojvodas and serdars". The negotiations failed to stop the fighting.
At sunset, the siege was relieved by BjelopavliÃÂi forces. After hearing that more reinforcements from Grahovo were coming to the aid of the defenders, many rebels deserted. The Drobnjaci arrived late to the defense, being sidetracked by bad weather. After the fighting had ended, several rebel leaders were captured including ÃÂuro and Marko PetroviÃÂ, and former Defense Minister Marko ÃÂukanoviÃÂ. Misja NikoliÃÂ and Brigadier General ÃÂuro JovoviÃÂ escaped, having gone into hiding and crossed into Italy, respectively.
Unrest started around the Crmnica town of Virpazar on , where the supporters of King Nicholas were led by Jovan Plamenac.
According to Commander Jagoà ¡ Draà ¡koviÃÂ, Plamenac approached Virpazar in the morning of 3 January with over 400 men, while Draà ¡koviàdefended the town with around 350. The number of defenders increased during the day, and Plamenac hoped to reach the Italian troops further to the south for supplies and ammunition. Since Draà ¡koviàplaced his troops between Plamenac and the Italians, Plamenac agreed to meet with Draà ¡koviÃÂ, who was accompanied by Dr Blaà ¾o LekiÃÂ, leader of the Crmnica youth and an older local, Stanko ÃÂuroviÃÂ. Plamenac agreed to send his men home, in return for a letter guaranteeing his safe passage to Cetinje after his men disbanded.
Draà ¡koviàconcludes that Plamenac agreed to disband his troops because he was unsure of his victory, and because his plan was to deal with Virpazar and Rijeka CrnojeviÃÂa quickly, after which his troops in the area could join the siege of Cetinje, which was planned to be over by 5 January. Since this proved impossible, he counted on improving the Greens' odds with Cetinje by appearing in person and in the company of at least a few men.
Plamenac disbanded most of his troops in the evening of 3 January, and proceeded to his native village of BoljeviÃÂi with around 60 men, who planned to march on Cetinje the following day. On 4 January, Andrija Radoviàstopped in Virpazar while returning from Shkodër, where he held a speech in front of the Crmnica locals. He threatened Plamenac, and pointed out that he was now decorated with more foreign honors than the late Ilija Plamenac. Draà ¡koviàconsiders this speech to have acted to the detriment of the White cause, primarily because it enraged the locals who held Ilija Plamenac in high regard. Because of this new situation, Jovan Plamenac started rallying his men again.
In the evening of 4 January, Draà ¡koviàmarched on BoljeviÃÂi with around 150 men, but Plamenac had already retreated toward Seoca and Krnjice. Draà ¡koviàreturned to Virpazar and boarded his men on a ship headed for Krnjice, where he attacked Plamenac and his troops. The Greens retreated into Skadarska Krajina, and crossed the Bojana to join the Italian troops in Albania.
Though a minor hamlet, Rijeka CrnojeviÃÂa was central to the Greens' plan. After its fall, troops from the area were to launch a serious strike on Cetinje. The town was surrounded on by troops under the command of Commander ÃÂuro à  oÃÂ. The towns defenders were led by Brigade General Niko Pejanoviàand, though low in number, held their positions.
The first day of the siege, Pejanoviàwrote to one of the Greens' commanders to call off the attack. à  oàwrote to the local command, the head of the srez and the president of the municipality. He requested that the defenders produce three hostages, evacuate all Serbian troops and provided that the defenders leave Rijeka CrnojeviÃÂa armed, after which he guaranteed that they would be escorted to Shkodër with honor. He states in his letters that Montenegro had been "sold for Judas' silver" and that while being the "torch of Serb freedom", it was occupied by "brotherly à  umadijans who replaces the Austro-Hungarians". His claims that 35,000 Montenegrins were participating in the uprising and that Virpazar was already conquered were widely overstated.
During the night, reinforcements arrived from Podgorica to lift the siege. According to Jovan ÃÂetkoviÃÂ, member of the Podgorica Assembly, the youth of Podgorica met with the Greens during the night around Carev Laz near Rvaà ¡i. After a short verbal confrontation, leaders of the youth agreed to negotiate with the Greens in Rvaà ¡i. Todor Boà ¾oviÃÂ, Captain Jovan Vuksanoviàand Podgorica Assembly MP Nikola KovaÃÂeviÃÂâÂÂMizara proceeded to Rvaà ¡i accompanied by 5-6 other members of the youth. The rest set up camp near Carev Laz and were led by Captain Radojica Damjanoviàand flag-bearer Nikola DragoviÃÂ. There, they met Captains ÃÂuza ÃÂuraà ¡koviàand Marko Radunoviàwho were waiting for a negotiator from the Greens. They waited in Rvaà ¡i until daybreak, when a group went toward Rijeka to the village of Druà ¡iÃÂi. They found serdar Joko JoviÃÂeviàwho summoned a local, Captain ÃÂuko KostiÃÂ, and initiated negotiations between the two groups.
In the morning of 4 January, while the groups were negotiating, the youth decided to push forward contrary to the command of Todor Boà ¾oviÃÂ. They met the Greens under the command of Captain Jovan Vujoviàin the village of à  inÃÂon, near Rijeka CrnojeviÃÂa, where the Greens held higher ground. The Greens realized that, while initially outnumbering the town's defenders, they were now outnumbered. They agreed to send their men home and salute to the Whites' flag, which was highly unpopular among the rebel troops.
After breaking the siege of Rijeka CrnojeviÃÂa, the Whites achieved an extremely significant victory and by 5 January, troops under the command of Serbian General Dragutin Milutinoviàhad both ended a minor uprising in Rijeka CrnojeviÃÂa and had stopped a larger attack on Nikà ¡iÃÂ.
As Jovan Plamenac and the other rebel leaders had planned, Cetinje turned out to be the epicenter of the uprising. After several days of exchanging letters, the rebels began forming armed squads on 1918. The rebels gathered in front of the House of Government on 1 January 1919 and left town for the hills. Recruits were called to arms by ringing the church bells in the vicinity of Cetinje. By 2 January, Cetinje was surrounded from all sides.
According to ÃÂetkoviÃÂ, the town was, at this moment in time, defended by around 100 members of the national guard i.e 20âÂÂ30 men each from several tribes around Cetinje, 50âÂÂ60 members of the youth, 50 gendarmes and policemen and 100 members of the 2nd Yugoslav Regiment under Colonel Dragutin MilutinoviÃÂ. The troops were lacking in ammunition, and every defender had between 50 and 100 rounds. MilutinoviÃÂ's troops were armed with two cannons and around 1,000 shells.
Youth leader Marko Dakoviàrequested that Milutinoviàdeliver arms to his troops, but since he was himself lacking in arms and ammunition, he directed Dakoviàtoward the commander of the Second Army stationed in Sarajevo, vojvoda Stepa StepanoviÃÂ. The telephone lines were still operational and Stepanoviàallowed Dakoviàto restock from the army garrison in Tivat. During 2 January, leader of the Ljeà ¡anska national guard Lieutenant Radoje ÃÂetkoviàreached Tivat and returned with around 2,000 rifles and ample ammunition.
The following day, on 3 January, a delegation headed by Brigade Generals Milutin Vukotiàand Jovo BeÃÂir went to negotiate with the rebel leaders at their headquarters in the village of Bajice. According to General MilutinoviÃÂ, the negotiations were unsuccessful and he went to negotiate personally around 2 P.M. Milutinoviàmet Captain ÃÂuro Draà ¡koviàand Lieutenant Ilija BeÃÂir, the latter of whom he describes as insolent for having said "Either the Serbians leave Montenegro or there will be blood, there isn't and there cannot be any other way". In his return, Milutinoviàmet his troops who begged him to attack Bajice, but their request was denied because he "still hoped that everything would end peacefully".
In the morning of 4 January, serdar Janko VukotiÃÂ arrived in Cetinje. He had broken through the rebels' advance guard with a force of 30 men from ÃÂevo. MilutinoviÃÂ advised VukotiÃÂ to make arrangements with the National Executive Committee, to allow him to try negotiating with the rebels in Bajice. The Committee agreed, and VukotiÃÂ went to Bajice by car, accompanied with two captains and an MP of the Podgorica Assembly . The two captains returned on foot not long after with word that VukotiÃÂ and the MP had been captured. Other than the capture of serdar VukotiÃÂ and some gendarmes encountering a minor roadblock on their way to the villages of Kosijeri and Jabuka, no fighting took place on that day.
Jailed in Bajice, serdar Janko Vukotiàwrote to General Milutinoviàin the morning of 5 January, pleading him to allow the rebels to enter Cetinje without a struggle, while securing the area around his command with Serbian troops and the area between the Zetski Dom theater, the hospital and the barracks with troops under the command of vojvoda Stevo VukotiÃÂ. His message was pessimistic, as he believed MilutinoviÃÂ's forces to be severely outnumbered. Around 6 A.M., a list of demands written by Captain Krsto Popoviàthe previous day was delivered to MilutinoviÃÂ, asking for the termination of resolutions of the Podgorica Assembly. The message was delivered to Milutinoviàby Captain ÃÂuro Draà ¡koviàand Lieutenant GrujiÃÂiÃÂ. Draà ¡koviàcomplained to Milutinoviàverbally about the disrespect towards Montenegrin military units by the Serbian command.
In his letter, Captain PopoviÃÂ demanded that the organization of the emerging Kingdom of Yugoslavia be decided by the Constitutional Assembly, that anyone responsible for the events in Montenegro be tried and that new elections were held to produce a new government which would represent Montenegro in international relations. He gave MilutinoviÃÂ until 6 January to acquiesce and threatened to enter the town with several thousand troops. MilutinoviÃÂ replied to PopoviÃÂ promising to put an end to any irregularities by the new police authorities and agreeing to bring PopoviÃÂ's requests to the government in Belgrade, but declining any of his other demands. MilutinoviÃÂ was more confident in his ability to hold Cetinje, as a load of arms and ammunition had arrived from Tivat the previous evening.
During the afternoon, vojvoda Stevo VukotiÃÂ, brother of Queen Milena of Montenegro, went to visit serdar Janko Vukotiàin Bajice where he was being held. Serdar Janko pleaded with Stevo Vukotiàin tears, while Stevo was unwilling to accept any of the rebels' demands. Milutinoviàheld a meeting with the Executive Committee in the afternoon during which Divisional General Mitar Martinoviàsuggested accepting the rebels' terms. Milutinoviàproceeded with his defense, ignoring the Committee's stance, and put Prince Michael's godfather Captain Boà ¾o Novakoviàin command of the volunteer troops.
In the evening of 5 January, an artillery unit from Zelenika armed with two cannons and led by Commander Ljubodrag Jankoviàtried to reach Cetinje. They reached Kotor around 5 P.M. and set off for Cetinje two hours later. The unit was held back by the rebels at the village of Njeguà ¡i, after which the command in Kotor ordered them to open fire. They failed to follow their order and camped for the night on the hillside of Krstac near Njeguà ¡i. At the same time, a group of more than 600 Whites proceeded towards Cetinje from the failed siege of Rijeka CrnojeviÃÂa. The group was made up of KuÃÂi, Piperi and BjelopavliÃÂi tribesmen. They formed a column near Belveder, where they were ambushed by the Greens. The group entered Cetinje near the hospital late in the evening.
On 6 January 1919, around 250 Serbian troops and 850 volunteers from nearby Montenegrin tribes fought a formation of approximately 1,500 to 2,000 rebel Greens in Cetinje. That day, the Greens initiated a siege on Cetinje, killing some members of the Great National Assembly and killing some Whites. After that, the Greens experienced severe factionalism, in addition to facing the militarily stronger Whites.
As a result of the Podgorica Assembly, King Nicholas was exiled to the Kingdom of Italy, from which the uprising enjoyed substantial support, due to the Italian claims and desired influence in the region. King Nicholas's Ministers asked for the Italian Expedition Corps in Albania to enter Montenegro, "in order for it to be liberated solely by Italian troops". A committee organized by Italian ethnographer Antonio Baldacci supported the Greens until at least 1921.
In the spring of 1919, the United States sent Charles W. Furlong as an envoy from the Peace Commission to Montenegro. Furlong reported to The New York Times in an interview published on June 15, 1919, that the electors in the Podgorica Assembly acted as carpetbaggers did in the United States.
An initiative called the Inter-Allied Commission of Investigation monitored the Podgorica Assembly and the Whites after the uprising. It included Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, as well as lieutenants from the United States, United Kingdom, and Italy. They recorded that there were as few as 500 unionist troops in Montenegro, and that they were not exclusively Serbian but from other constituents of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The commission also concluded from interviewing Greens held as prisoners that the uprising had been "caused by agents of King Nicholas I and supported by some emissaries from Italy."
Later in the twentieth century, the Christmas Uprising was subject to ideological emphasis in Montenegrin nationalism. In World War II, one of the earliest leaders of the Greens, Sekula DrljeviÃÂ, invited the Italian occupation of Montenegro and collaborated with the Independent State of Croatia in order to break away from Yugoslavia.
Since Montenegro declared independence from Serbia in 2006, the Christmas Uprising has been memorialized on polar opposite ends of the Montenegrin historical consciousness. In 1941, a memorial on the burial site of unionist Whites was destroyed by the Italian occupation of Montenegro in Cetinje. As of 2017, a walkway was paved on the same burial site in Cetinje without any recognition to the Whites. On 7 January 2008, on the 90th anniversary of the uprising, Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo ÃÂukanoviÃÂ revealed a memorial statue for the Greens who were killed in the insurrection.